Pete's must see list for 2022
Well here we are. Another Romford Film Festival! Seven days of cinema heaven. It feels like we say it every year, but it really was a truly mammoth task to narrow down the selections this year into the 136 short and feature films we’ve got in store for you.
Obviously I’m going to bang the drum again for Japanese director Kenichi Ugana [Extraneous Matter, Visitors] whose best film to date, The Empty Flowerpot opens proceedings on Saturday morning. Viewers prepared to give themselves over to a film that doesn’t shy away from a really tough subject matter and an ice-cold aesthetic, will be rewarded with one of the very best feature films we have in this year’s line-up. And boy, that devastating ending. Wow. [Saturday 21st May, 10am]
One of my very favourite short films this year was Colossus, from the USA and directed by James Roe. A hugely original premise, beautifully captured locations, and two excellent male performances for the price of one, make this sci-fi meets WW2 genre mashup a must-watch. [Monday 23rd May, 4pm].
I wanted to shine a particular spotlight this year on what I’m going to refer to as the ‘Spanish contingent’. In recent years we’ve had some gems from Spain in the regular and horror festivals; from Smiles, Last Day on Duty and Mujereando, to You Will Never Be Back. Every year we receive a high volume of submissions from Spain, but this year was unprecedented with over thirty entries. We ended up with twelve in the final programme, but there were easily another ten that could have made it in but just missed out this time.
What is most striking this year is the depth of quality and variety amongst the Spanish contingent. The twelve films cover historical drama, science fiction, teenage drama, revenge horror, post-apocalypse comedy and more. Every one of them is essential viewing, but if pushed I would highlight three that each had a phenomenal central performance in them: Phase 5, Accomplices, and Consequences. The latter two given by teenage acting talent (Paula Gallego and Eddy Muñoz respectively) who I’ll be keeping a keen eye out for in the future.
[Phase 5, Wednesday 25th May, 1.30pm // Accomplices, Monday 23rd May, 9.20pm // Consequences, Friday 20th May, 10.45am]
I hope you enjoy whatever you catch at this year’s festival, and also take a chance on something outside of your usual viewing tastes. I think that’s the beauty of film festivals, and certainly a large part of the buzz behind why I love working on them.
